JOHANNESBURG — Suicide bombers blew up a hotel lobby full of Israeli tourists near the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa on Thursday, killing 15 people, just after two missiles narrowly missed an Israeli charter flight leaving the city.

The attacks came about five minutes apart, and the apparent coordination recalled the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania carried out by Al Qaeda in 1998.

Kenyan, Israeli and U.S. officials were looking for an Al Qaeda link in Thursday's assaults, although a previously unknown organization, the Army of Palestine, claimed responsibility in a fax sent from Lebanon.

The three bombers and three Israelis, including two children, were among the dead. About 80 people were wounded in the attack on the Israeli-owned Paradise resort hotel. Six Kenyans were killed, mainly traditional dancers performing for the newly arrived tourists, police and hospital authorities said.

Witnesses at the hotel, a favorite of Israeli package tour groups, described a grisly scene of fire, bloodied and burned victims and children screaming for missing parents. Many of the bodies of the dead were burned beyond recognition and trapped in the debris of the lobby. Just outside the entrance a human jawbone lay on the road near the twisted wreckage of the bombers' sport-utility vehicle, used to smash a gate to gain entrance to the secluded beach-side complex.

The Israeli-chartered airliner that was fired on Thursday morning had just delivered many of the tourists to Mombasa and was heading back to Israel with 261 passengers and 11 crew on board.

The pilot, who reported seeing two white smoke trails on the plane's left side, initially considered an emergency landing in Nairobi but after consulting with Israeli officials flew on to Tel Aviv and landed safely, authorities said.

In Israel, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the events as a "terror attack against Israel" and warned that they represented "a serious escalation of international terrorism."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed Israel would track down those behind the assaults and placed the Mossad spy agency in charge. The agency hunted down and killed nearly all the Palestinians believed responsible for kidnapping and deaths of 11 Israelis during the Munich Olympics in 1972.

President Bush denounced the violence and offered U.S. help.

"Today's attacks underscore the continuing willingness of those opposed to peace to commit horrible crimes," Bush said in Washington. "The United States remains firmly committed, with its partners around the world, to the fight against terror and those who commit these heinous acts."

The State Department issued an advisory warning Americans in Kenya to exercise "extra caution" at hotels, tourist locations and urban areas, especially in coastal regions.

If linked to Al Qaeda, the attacks would be the first by the terrorist network against Israeli targets. Authorities suspect the network also was involved in a nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia, that killed at least 190 in October.

Kenyan Vice President Musalia Mudavadi, who visited the bomb site Thursday, said Kenyan intelligence officials had had some indication over the last six months that Kenya might again be a focus of terrorist groups planning assaults.

A pair of truck bombs driven into the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and in Tanzania in 1998 left 231 dead, including 12 Americans. A New York court last year ruled that the bombings were the work of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization.

Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi said Thursday while on a trip to Uganda that Thursday's attacks were similar to the 1998 bombings.

He complained that "the world, including our friends, have not helped us enough" in stopping such attacks but promised that "we will do what we can to fight back."

Recent taped remarks attributed to bin Laden were highly critical of Israel and raised concerns that Israelis could become a new target of the group.

But Reuters news service received a fax Thursday from an unknown Lebanese group calling itself the Army of Palestine and claiming responsibility for the attacks. The fax indicated the group had sent two "units" to Kenya to "strike at Israeli interests."

Palestinian leaders said they had not heard of the group before.

The attacks began shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday morning, just moments after an Israeli Arkia charter flight took off from the Mombasa airport, carrying passengers home after a weeklong, $500 package tour to Mombasa. Arkia pilot Rafi Marek first reported hearing a small concussion, similar to what might be heard during a collision with a small bird.

Seconds later he said he saw two "white stripes above and below the aircraft" about 100 yards away from the plane, which was climbing to cruising altitude. About 30 minutes into the flight they decided to inform Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv and were told of the hotel attack, Marek said.